Dessert pies typically have been baked, packaged and sold in frusto-conical pie plates having a side wall extending upwardly and outwardly from a round flat bottom. However, recently a substantial market has developed for dessert pies that are packaged and sold in single serving size wedge shaped slices. Each slice of dessert pie is packaged in a wedge shaped container having substantially the same configuration as the slice of pie packaged therein. Slices of pie packaged in this manner can be purchased by the consumer in any convenient quantity. Thus, the consumer purchases only as many slices of pie as are needed, thereby ensuring that there will be no excess to become stale or spoiled. As an alternative, the individual servings of dessert pies can be frozen either by the baker or by the consumer. The consumer then can purchase a larger number of servings of the dessert pie, which can be thawed out and consumed whenever convenient.
Several wedge shaped containers have been developed for the shipping and storage of individual slices of pie. Paper board containers adapted for this purpose include U.S. Pat. No. 2,220,110 issued to Layton; U.S. Pat. No. 2,701,091 issued to Buttery; U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,650 issued to Watts and U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,131 issued to Tolaas. Wedge shaped plastic containers adapted for the same purposes include U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,403 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,411 both of which issued to Rump.
The prior art containers described in the above cited references have been deficient in certain respects. Specifically, each of these prior art containers includes three side walls that are substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface of the container. The slices of pie stored in these prior art containers, however, include a rear edge that slants upwardly and outwardly away from the bottom surface of the pie. Thus, the containers referred to above do not closely conform to the configuration of the slices of pie stored in these prior art containers. As a result, the prior art containers cited above provide poor protection and support for fragile slices of pie.
A second deficiency of the above cited prior art containers is that all include top opening members which require the fragile slices of pie to be loaded and unloaded from the top of the container. This top opening feature has made it difficult for bakers to place the pie into the package and for consumers to remove the pie from the package. More particularly, bakers have found that automatic loading devices cannot reliably place the delicate servings of pie into the packages having top opening members. Attempts to minimize the possibility of damage to the slices of pie during packaging have resulted in low packaging rates. Larger containers facilitate insertion and removal of the pie somewhat, but provide poor support during shipping and storage. Similarly, to remove the slice of pie from one of these prior art containers, the consumer typically will grasp the rear crust of the pie and lift the rear of the pie up. This creates a bending moment on the delicate bottom crust, and thereby makes damage likely.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,583,915 issued to Whitley and U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,379 issued to Chmielewski both are directed to containers for individual wedge shaped slices of pie that conform more closely to the actual configuration of the pie. Specifically, both of these containers include a pair of trapezoidal side walls and a rear wall that slants upwardly and outwardly away from the bottom of the container. The Whitley reference, however, provides a rear wall that offers little support to the structure, and also requires top loading and unloading. The Chimiliski structure provides no top wall and therefore would offer even less structural support for the pie.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,430 issued to Meyers is directed to a wedge shaped container with a side opening panel. However, the Meyers container appears to be designed for one or more triangular sandwiches that typically would be formed by slicing a square sandwich along a diagonal. Consequently, all three side walls of the Meyers container are substantially perpendicular to the top and bottom walls. Thus, although the Meyers container avoids top loading, the three upstanding side walls of the Meyers container would provide poor structural support for a fragile slice of pie.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 which issued to Henry H. Roberts and Raymond A. Cote on Feb. 2, 1982, and which is assigned to the assignee of the subject invention is directed to a single serving pie carton and blank which provides very good structural support for a slice of pie. Specifically, the Roberts et al carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 includes a pair of side walls and a rear wall extending between and connecting parallel top and bottom walls. The top wall of the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 is of a larger area than the bottom wall, and the side walls each are trapezoidal. As a result, the rear wall on the erected carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 is slanted with respect to the top and bottom walls. Thus, the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 closely conforms to the configuration of the slice of pie stored therein. Additionally, the side and rear walls of the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542 provide adequate protection and support for the slice of pie stored in the carton.
Despite the many advantages of the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542, it is desired to provide an improved wedge shaped carton that provides the desirable structural support of the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,542, but that also can be loaded from the rear.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an improved container and a blank for forming a container for a single slice of pie that enables easy loading and removal of the pie from the rear of the container.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a container and a blank for forming a container for a single slice of pie that enables loading of the pie into the container at an acceptable rate by known packaging devices.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a container and a blank for forming a container for a single slice of pie that has a double side wall and a double slanted rear wall to provide the necessary support for the fragile pie during shipping and storage.
It is an additional object of the subject invention to provide a container for a single slice of pie that can be manufactured easily and inexpensively from a unitary paperboard blank.